The present invention relates to a motor vehicle door, and more particularly to an automotive door.
Automotive doors are known which are designed to provide a flush surface between an outboard surface of a window panel in its lifted position and the adjacent outboard surface of the door. A typical one of such known automotive doors is shown in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6. Referring to FIGS. 4, 5, and 6, in this known automotive door, a window panel 13 is moved upward by a window regulator toward a lifted position and moved in a laterally outboard direction immediately before reaching the lifted position. Thus, the window panel 13 is pressed into firm engagement with a weatherstrip 11 at an outboard lip 11a of a channel portion 11A thereof, reducing discontinuity between the outboard surface of the window panel and the adjacent outboard surface of the door. The weatherstrip 11 is made of an elastomer, such as a rubber, and mounted along a window aperture defining edge of a window frame portion 12a integrally formed with a door panel assembly 12 including an outer panel and an inner door panel. The outer and inner panels have flanges 12b extending from the edge into the window aperture. The weatherstrip 11 is fixedly attached to the flanges 12b, and the channel portion 11A thereof defines a window glass run channel adapted to receive and guide a rear edge portion 13a of the window pane 13. A side finisher 14 is secured to the door outer panel of the window frame portion 12a and prevents the outboard lip 11a from deforming outboard when the window panel 13 is pressed against the outboard lip 11a. The weatherstrip 11 includes an upper portion 11B adapted to sealably contact with an upper edge portion of the window panel 13. The channel portion 11A includes an inboard lip portion 11c and the upper portion 11B includes a lip 11d. When the window panel 13 is moved to the lifted position, the lips 11c and 11d sealably contact with an inboard surface of the window panel 13. In FIG. 6, the reference numeral 15 denotes a glass retainer. This automotive door is disclosed in JP-U 62-115214.
The position of the window panel 13 relative to the channel portion 11A is variable depending on degree of accuracy which the flanges 12b are processed with and degree of accuracy which the side finisher 14 is assembled with the frame portion 12a. The flanges 12b and side finisher 14 are large in dimension, so that a variation in processing the flanges 12b and a variation in assembling the side finisher with the window frame portion 12a create a problem that the window panel 13 does not completely close the window aperture even when it is moved to the lifted position. More particularly, if the side finisher 14 is assembled to take a position as illustrated by the phantom line in FIG. 5, the upper edge portion 13b of the window panel 13 will assume a position as illustrated by the phantom line in FIG. 6 when it is moved toward the lifted position. In this case, the upper edge portion 13b engages the glass retainer with the inboard surface thereof disengaged from the lip 11d when the window glass is in the lifted position, thus failing to make a seal around the upper edge portion 13b of the window glass 13. If, due to a manufacturing variation, the flanges 12b extends inboard of the vehicle to take a position as illustrated by the phantom line in FIG. 5 and thus the channel portion 11A takes a position as illustrated by the phantom line in FIG. 5, the upper edge portion 13b of the window panel 13 assumes a position as illustrated by the broken line in FIG. 6 when it is moved toward the lifted position. In this case, the upper edge portion 13b engages the base which the lip 11d extends from, and thus the window glass 13 is not moved to the lifted position, failing to completely close the window aperture. If the channel portion 11A is disposed at the position as illustrated by the phantom line in FIG. 5, the inboard lip 11c fails to contact with the inboard surface of the window panel 13.
In addition to the above-mentioned problem, there is a problem that it is difficult to reduce a variation in distance between the outboard surface of the window panel 13 in the lifted position and the adjacent outboard surface of the door, degrading the external appearance and quality.
An object of the present invention is to improve a motor vehicle door such that even if there are a variation in processing component parts of the door structure and a variation in assembling them, the finally assembled product is free from the above-mentioned problem that the window is not completely closed nor a seal between the window panel and the window frame fails to be made, and a distance between the outboard surface of the window panel and the adjacent outboard surface of the door is maintained.